(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to elastic web fabric and, more particularly, to an elastic web fabric with bidirectional stretch suitable for use in orthopedic wrap and athletic supporter pouch fabric.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Most elastic web fabric manufactured for use in garments such as athletic supporter pouch fabrics are currently produced on a Lamb knitting machine which is a V-bed knitting machine originally developed in the 1920's to produce sweater collars. Such machines operate between 75-100 rpms producing only one piece of fabric per machine. Accordingly, to produce any substantial amount of fabric requires a number of machines operating continuously. On the other hand, modern crochet knitting machines operate substantially faster. For example, a crochet knitting machine can operate as high as 1100 or higher rpm which is over 10 times faster than a Lamb V-bed machine and, at the same time, can produce multiple fabric pieces.
One particularly well-known crochet machine is a Comez 800 Series flat bed knitting machine. While originally introduced in 1977 as the model 805 machine, it has evolved to the model 814 and now is known as the model 816 machine. This machine is available from Comez Machinery of Cilavegna, Italy. However, this machine uses bearded needles because at over about 1100 rpms, latch needles become inoperable. Such needles are not suitable for knitting large diameter elastic yarns as required for the present invention. In addition, material produced on such a machine normally does not have stretch in both the x and y directions and, like most knitted elastomeric material, the edges of the fabric curls.
Thus, there remains a need for a new and improved elastic web knitted fabric and method for producing the same which has bi-directional stretch, is curl-free and ravel resistant and, at the same time, can be produced at a substantially increased rate over conventional V-bed knitting machines and also produce multiple fabric pieces.